Intermediaries' New Roles and Strategies in Electronic Commerce

本研究的目的是厘清中介和电子中介在市场中的角色。研究人员认为，中介机构在未来扮演的角色将是重要的，中介机构将在未来继续存在。此外，我们还采访了电子中介和电子零售公司的最高管理层。然后，分析了EMP在美国的成功因素。提取了12个因子。2.电子中介中最重要的是信息收集和信息传递功能。此外，商品选择、商品分类功能、库存调节功能、促销功能也很重要。

The purpose of this research is to clarify intermediary's and e-intermediary's roles in the marketplace. The researchers took the standpoint that the roles that intermediaries had played will be important in the future, and the intermediaries will keep existing in the future. In this research, the roles that the intermediaries had played was arranged, and the researchers classified them into nine kinds, such as information gathering and transmission, and counseling. Then, the cases of e-Marketplace (eMP), information intermediation, and electronic distribution industry were investigated as investigations of the e-business which executes intermediary's functions. In addition, we had interviews with the top management of the electronic intermediaries and electronic retail companies. And then, we analyzed the success factors of eMP in the United States. The 12 factors have been extracted. Finally, to accomplish the roles that the electronic intermediaries have to play efficiently, we investigated the strategies for improving the efficiency of daily operations.The following conclusions were obtained by this research. 1. For intermediaries, not just to survive but to thrive, they are urged to transfer themselves to an electronic intermediary or to improve the efficiency of daily operations by reviewing the business or adopting IT. 2. The information gathering and the information transmission function are the most important in the electronic intermediary. In addition, the commodity selection, the goods assortment function, the inventory adjustment function, and the sales promotion function are also important.